Airport World, Issue 6, 2017

Theme: IT and new technology Special report: Osaka’s airport system Review: World Annual General Assembly Plus: Hospitality, ATAG Summit & People matters

Spotlight on IT and new technology December 2017-January 2018 Volume 22 Issue 6 www.aci.aero

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Airport World Editor Joe Bates +44 (0)1276 476582 joe@airport-world.com Design, Layout & Production Mark Draper +44 (0)208 707 2743 mark@airport-world.com Sales Director Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@airport-world.com Advertising Manager Andrew Hazell +44 (0)208 384 0206 andrewh@airport-world.com Subscriptions subscriptions@aviationmedia.aero Managing Director Jonathan Lee +44 (0)208 707 2743 jonathan@aviationmedia.aero

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Beam me up, Scotty!

Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on how IT and new technology continue to transform the way we travel and airports do business.

S

uch is the rapid advancement of technology today that I think most of us now believe that almost anything is possible, and this is particularly true for the aviation industry, which remains a pioneer in the development, testing and adoption of new, game-changing IT systems.

Although the technology portrayed in Sci-Fi classics like ‘Star Trek’ may still be pure fantasy, with commercial space travel seemingly just around the corner, who knows what new IT driven developments we can expect at airports in the future?

For those of you who believe that things aren’t moving that fast in terms of new technology, just think back a little and remember when you first heard the term ‘biometrics’, let alone knew what it involved? It was probably no longer than 10 to 15 years ago, right? Yet, today, it is a proven technology that is in use at airports across the world and will undoubtedly play an even bigger role in the way we travel in the future.

The Auto Bag Drop (ABD) units at Singapore Changi’s newly opened Terminal 4 utilise biometric technology, for example, and biometrics are at the heart of numerous expedited screening programmes and most new initiatives designed to enhance passenger facilitation and security levels at the world’s airports.

However, perhaps the best example of how technology has advanced in recent years are smartphones, particularly if you recall that most people didn’t have a mobile phone until the mid to late 1990s.

Indeed, I remember being at Gothenburg Landvetter Airport in 1995 when there was a medical emergency at the departure gate, and only a handful of people around me had a mobile phone, one of which was used to call for help that I believe proved crucial in saving a life.

If the same incident happened today, not only would everybody have a phone and be able to call for help, but the incident would be recorded and transmitted around the world for everyone to see in seconds via social media!

In terms of travelling, mobile phones can, of course, today be used for everything from checking in and paying for goods at airport shops to displaying boarding passes that can be scanned and verified at security and boarding gates. And, once again, there is so much more to come.

The potential impact of Blockchain technology, autonomous vehicles, ‘intelligent airports’ and cargo IT all come under the microscope in this ‘IT and new technology’ themed issue.

Our final issue of 2017 also turns the spotlight on Osaka’s airports and contains a comprehensive round up of the recent ACI Africa/ ACI World Assembly, Conference & Exhibition in Mauritius.

We also have features about airport hospitality; people matters; ATAG’s Global Sustainable Aviation Summit; and ACI’s World Business Partners.

It was actually at the ATAG summit where I heard about the potential revolutionary new mode of transport, called Hyperloop, for the first time. The new transport system essentially involves pods capable of holding people, freight and cars being transported at super high speeds inside sealed tubes, that theoretically make it possible to travel hundreds of kilometre distances in minutes rather than hours.

And according to Hyperloop One, one of the companies developing the new technology, it could be operational as early 2023.

Does that sound like science fiction to you?

Perhaps one day we really will be able to say, AW beam me up, Scotty!

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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CONTENTS

Issue 6 Volume 22

In this issue 3 Opinion Airport World editor, Joe Bates, reflects on how IT and new technology continue to transform the way we travel and airports do business.

8 Sunny delight Airport World reviews the highlights of the recent ACI Africa/World Assembly, Conference and Exhibition in Mauritius.

14 Big in Japan Emmanuel Menanteau, Co-CEO of Kansai Airports, tells Joe Bates more about the company’s ambitions for Osaka’s airports and the Japanese market.

20 ACI News Sabrina Guerrieri reports on plans for a new Customer Excellence Global Summit, the official launch of ACI’s Airport Excellence (APEX) in Security programme and the latest world traffic forecast.

23 View from the top ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, reflects on the launch of New Experience in Travel and Technologies (NEXTT), the latest joint ACI/IATA initiative.

26 Intelligent airports Airports need to get smarter and not just bigger in order to meet the operational and capacity challenges of tomorrow, writes Kelly Allen.

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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CONTENTS

Director General Angela Gittens Chair Declan Collier (London, UK) Vice Chair Bongani Maseko (Johannesburg, South Africa) Immediate Past Chair Fredrick J Piccolo (Sarasota, USA) Treasurer Arnaud Feist (Brussels, Belgium) ACI WORLD GOVERNING BOARD DIRECTORS Africa (2) Saleh Dunoma (Lagos, Nigeria) Bongani Maseko (Johannesburg, South Africa)

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One direction Arup’s global aviation business leader, Ian Taylor, ponders how autonomous vehicles will shape the airport of the future.

33

The next big thing?

It is early days for Blockchain technology, but it has the potential to offer significant benefits to airports and passengers, writes Amadeus Airport Solutions’ Holger Mattig.

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Volumes better Smarter warehouses and new strategic alliances will transform how airports handle cargo in the future, writes Unisys Corporation’s Venkatesh Pazhyanur.

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Ambitions, goals and challenges Joe Bates reports on some of the highlights and lesson learned from October’s Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva.

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The hospitality business Plaza Premium Group’s Jonathan Song provides his thoughts on future innovation in global airport hospitality.

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ACI’s World Business Partners The latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners and industry news from across the globe.

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People matters Dr Richard Plenty and Terri Morrissey reflect on the importance of taking control of technology.

Asia-Pacific (9) Aimen Al-Hosni (Muscat, Oman) Kjeld Binger (Amman, Jordan) Datuk Badlisham Bin Ghazali (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Fred Lam (Hong Kong) Seow Hiang Lee (Singapore) Xue Song Liu, (Beijing, China) Kerrie Mather (Sydney, Australia) Emmanuel Menanteau (Osaka, Japan) PS Nair (Delhi, India) Europe (7) Daniel Burkard (Moscow, Russia) Declan Collier (London, UK) Elena Mayoral Corcuera (Madrid, Spain) Arnaud Feist (Brussels, Belgium) Michael Kerkloh (Munich, Germany) Jos Nijhuis (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Sani Şener (Istanbul, Turkey) Latin America & Caribbean (3) Ezequiel Barrenechea (Lima, Peru) Martin Eurnekián (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Andrew O’Brian (Quito, Ecuador) North America (7) Lew Bleiweis (Asheville, USA) Joyce Carter (Halifax, Canda) Howard Eng (Toronto, Canada) Deborah Flint (Los Angeles, USA) Joseph Lopano (Tampa, USA) Tom Ruth (Edmonton, Canada) William Vanecek (Buffalo, USA) Regional Advisers to the World Governing Board (9) Zouhair Mohamed El Aoufir (Rabat, Morocco) Pascal Komla (Lomé, Togo) Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Candace McGraw (Cincinnati, USA) Joseph Napoli (Miami, USA) Hector Navarrete Muñoz (Merida, Mexico) Augustin de Romanet (Paris, France) Brian Ryks (Minneapolis-St Paul, USA) Stefan Schulte (Frankfurt, Germany) World Business Partner Observer Babatunde Oyekola (El-Mansur Atelier Group) Correct as of December 2017

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EVENTS: WORLD ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sunny delight Airport World reviews the highlights of the recent ACI Africa/World Assembly, Conference and Exhibition in Mauritius.

T

he election of a new chair and vice chair, release of a new Policy Brief on airport networks and, of course, two days of lively debate about everything from leadership challenges to the sustainability of aviation ensured that this year’s ACI World Annual General Assembly in Mauritius will be fondly remembered by all 600 delegates lucky enough to attend it.

‘Bold leadership in a time of change’ was the theme of this year’s event – hosted by AML and held jointly with ACI Africa’s Regional Conference, Assembly & Exhibition – and it didn’t waste much time getting on topic after the formalities of the opening ceremony.

During her welcome address, ACI World’s director general, Angela Gittens, said: “We cannot help but reflect on the fact that over the years the pace of change has continued to accelerate.

“This year’s conference theme, ‘Bold leadership in a time of change’, recognises that whatever their cause, airports must react to them.

“Airports play a crucial role in the economic and social health of communities, countries, regions and the world at large, and we must craft a strategy for their sustainable development to continue those benefits.”

Keynote speaker, president of the ICAO Council, Dr Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu, stated that the aviation industry’s continued growth also presented it with its greatest challenges.

Regarding growth, he noted that the projected doubling of flight and passenger volumes by the early 2030s poses significant risks to air transport safety performance, network capacity and efficiency, security preparedness, and emissions mitigation targets.

He also remarked upon the risks it poses to air transport’s role in supporting enhanced sustainable prosperity wherever States have established ICAO-compliant aviation connectivity.

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Aliu added: “One of the most important prerequisites for future air transport sustainability depends on the quality and extent of the infrastructure and human resources development commitments which governments make today.”

Others key figures to address the audience during the opening sessions of the conference included the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; AML chairman, Johnny Dumazel; ACI World chairman, Declan Collier; and the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and president of ACI Africa, Saleh Dumona.

In his opening remarks, Collier noted that global passenger traffic “continues to dance to the beat of its own drum”, posting growth rates of 7% in 2016. He added that international travel and tourism, in particular, remained “irrepressible” despite the geo-political risks that persist in many parts of the world.

Collier, who forecast that global passenger traffic would exceed eight billion by the end of 2017, told delegates that the world’s airports generated almost $152 billion in revenue in 2015 with 55% being generated by aeronautical sources and 41% by non-aviation related activities.

“These figures reveal a familiar narrative, that more and more people are travelling, globalisation is growing and the airport industry is in overall health,” he said.

“While the objective continues to be on ensuring that air traffic is managed safely, securely and efficiently, that must be done with due respect to our sector’s concrete environmental commitments.

“Despite that, as Angela said, change is ever evolving and as many of us know all too well, the challenges and opportunities that we faced yesterday are not the same as those we face today, and will certainly not be the same as those that face us over horizon.

EVENTS: WORLD ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Mather noted that her company’s decision to decline the government’s invitation to develop a second Sydney Airport could be considered a bold decision.

While LAWA’s Flint quoted former boxer Mike Tyson when talking about the qualities needed to be a good leader when plans change.

“I am a big sports fan, and the boxer Mike Tyson used to say that everyone has a great plan until they get punched in the mouth,” she said.

“That’s when you have to figure out how to be really resilient. The leaders job is to say we are going to be resilient and we have smart enough people to work out how to deal with this blow, pivot if necessary, but continue to look forward and drive towards that ultimate vision.”

Other big names on the panel – moderated by ACI World’s deputy director general, Michael Rossell – were Ezequiel Barrenechea, executive vice president of Aeropuertos Andinos de Perú and director general of Corporación América; and ACI Africa’s Saleh Dunoma.

“For this reason we must continue to be analytical, data driven, and most importantly be wiling to co-operate. Quite simply, that’s why we are here in Mauritius, to collectively take bold steps and craft a sustainable way forward amidst continual change.”

Next up was ACI Europe’s director general, Olivier Jankovec, who used his time in the spotlight to highlight the incredible progress of ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme to help combat climate change, which he called “humanity’s biggest challenge”.

He revealed that a total of 201 airports across the globe are certified under the programme today.

“From May 2016 to May 2017, the 189 accredited airports succeeded in collectively reducing their carbon emissions by over 200,000 tonnes of CO2. That’s equivalent to the CO2 emitted during the lifecycle of over two million iPhones,” Jankovec informed delegates.

The final morning session before lunch on ‘Bold leadership’ was arguably one of the highlights of the conference as it contained some of the best known names in the industry in the shape of Los Angeles World Airports CEO, Deborah Flint; Fraport’s executive board chairman, Dr Stefan Schulte; and Sydney Airport’s managing director and CEO, Kerrie Mather.

In response to a question about what is bold leadership, Schulte stated: “For me, leadership is setting the company’s path and developing its strategy, giving direction, looking for returns on investments and, of course, motivating and inspiring people.

“Bold leadership is sometimes about making the difficult decisions.

It is often about dealing with a lot of criticism and convincing sceptical people in the company to buy into your vision and then get them to persuade others to do the same.”

New Policy Brief ACI World also used Day 1 of the conference to officially launch its new Policy Brief on airport networks and the sustainability of small airports.

The ACI Policy Brief focuses on one specific management model: the airport network and the sustainability of airports with low traffic volumes, and provides an overview of the state of airport networks worldwide, based on a robust data set and inventory of the world’s networks.

It also puts forth practical policy recommendations to ensure that airport operation and development is sustainable and beneficial to airlines, passengers, communities and national economies.

ACI World chairman, Declan Collier, noted that an estimated 1,900 airports or almost 50% of the world’s airports belong to airport networks of some kind, between them handling just under three billion passengers a year or 40% of global passenger traffic.

While in Africa, almost 90% of airports belong to an airport network and they cover 80% of the traffic handled in the region.

“The Policy Brief proves that the sustainable operation and development of the world’s airports remains a challenge,” he said.

“While the airport industry as a whole is profitable, financial statements show that as many as two-thirds of the world’s airports, most of which are small, operate at a net loss. The airport network model, however, is one management option to overcome this challenge as it allows cross subsidisation from profitable, larger airports.

“This is often key to the sustainability of smaller airports and provides benefits in terms of safety and social and economic development as well as the airlines serving the networks.”

Summing up, he noted: “We believe that airports should be free to consider the management model that is best suited to the public policy and commercial strategic objectives of their business.”

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EVENTS: WORLD ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Celebration time: The Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards Ceremony took place during the Gala Dinner in Mauritius.

ACI World’s director general, Angela Gittens, told Airport World that ACI had taken the decision to issue the new Policy Brief now to demonstrate to policymakers how important airport networks are as some in the industry want to end the practice of cross subsidisation.

“Airport networks are a viable and cost effective way of keeping connectivity within a region, country or area because the smaller airports are subsidised by the bigger airports in the network, and this is really not that different from how the large hub carrier airlines manage themselves,” said Gittens.

“Not every airline route makes money, indeed most routes don’t, but they are necessary in order for other routes to make money.”

Top performing ASQ airports Award ceremonies for the 2016 Airport Service Quality (ASQ) winners and the gateways inducted into the Director General’s Roll of Excellence were held later at the Gala Dinner.

“These airports have dedicated themselves to delivering a stellar customer experience,” enthused Gittens. “Promoting a culture of continuous service improvement has become a matter of gaining competitive advantage and optimising non-aeronautical revenue performance.

“ACI proudly recognises these accomplishments and we look forward to seeking more effective, efficient and profitable ways of serving the flying public together.”

Security and customer service The first session after lunch, moderated by ACI World’s head of security, Nina Brooks, was about the importance of creating a strong security culture, and the panel made up of airport operators and the TSA’s Gary Seffel, offered a variety of views.

Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Corporation, noted that last year’s terrorist attack on his airport had made airport staff more aware than ever before about the need for a security culture and that all employees had a role to play in combatting threats.

“At Brussels Airport we have 1,500 security and police officers but we have 20,000 staff working at the airport every day, so it is obvious that having that many people aware of, and sensitive to security matters, multiplies your chances of addressing any threats early on, and this is especially true for insider threats,” said Feist.

Others on the panel included SSR International Airport’s head of security services, Rajeev Lollbeharree; Greater Toronto Airports Authority CEO, Howard Eng; and South African Civil Aviation Authority’s director of civil aviation, Poppy Khoza.

The conference part of Day 1 ended with a customer service focused debate called ‘The road to success: learning from the world’s best airports in customer experience’, chaired by ACI World’s airport customer experience and technology director, Antoine Rostworoswki.

On the panel were Malta International Airport’s Alan Borg; Quiport’s Allan Padilla; Halifax International Airport’s Joyce Carter; AML’s Romesh Bhoyroo; and Haikou Meilan International Airport’s Zhen Wang.

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Business partners and ACI World Assembly Day 2 began with a session that showed how ACI’s World Business Partners (WBPs) are helping airports innovate and be successful in an ever demanding environment.

Panellists included SITA’s Catherine Mayer; Airbiz’s Greg Fordham; Arconas Corporation’s Pablo Reich; and Global Exchange’s Angel de Léon.

The session was enthusiastically moderated by Tunde Oyekola, CEO of the El Mansour Group and WBP observer on the ACI World Governing Board.

New chair and vice chair ACI World’s annual Assembly followed and, as usual, it was a busy one and included the election of a new chair (Bongani Maskeo) and vice chair (Martin Eurnekián) for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2018.

Maseko, the CEO and executive director of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is the current vice chair and is being succeeded in that role by Eurnekián, who is president of Corporación América and president of ACI’s Latin America and Caribbean (ACI-LAC) region.

Speaking at ACI’s annual assembly, Maseko, said that it “was an extreme honour to be elected chair of ACI World” and promised to give it “his best shot”.

Eurnekián proved he was a man of few words by simply saying “thank you very much” to ACI members in attendance at the annual assembly.

However, afterwards he revealed that he was proud to accept the role and expressed gratitude to ACI World’s Governing Board and ACI members for their confidence in supporting his election.

EVENTS: WORLD ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY

On the new appointments, ACI World’s director general, Angela Gittens, noted: “I congratulate Bongani Maseko and Martin Eurnekián on their appointments. Be aware that the bar has been set very high and I am used to receiving wise, strategic direction, and will expect no less from both of you.”

Outgoing chair, London City Airport’s CEO, Declan Collier, who completes his two years stint in the hot seat at the end of the 2017, said it had been an honour and privilege to lead the organisation.

The Assembly was followed by Gittens’ self proclaimed favourite event of each year, the Airport Management Professional Accreditation Programme (AMPAP) graduation ceremony for all those to have obtained International Airport Professional (IAP) diplomas in the last 12 months.

This year 51 of the 133 graduates were in Mauritius to receive their certificates on the tenth anniversary of the launch of the AMPAP programme.

Reflecting on the first 10 years of the initiative, AMPAP programme executive president, Dr Pierre Coutu, revealed that a total of 700 people had graduated over the last decade.

He noted that the very first graduate, Macau International Airport’s Suning Liu, completed the three-year course in a remarkable 10 months and those that have followed since have included 131 staff from the Airports Authority of India, 41 from Malaysia Airports and 26 from the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.

Final sessions of the conference covered ‘Taxes, connectivity and sustainable tourism: barriers and opportunities to grow’; and ‘How airport CEOs view the digital transformation’.

The latter session featured Munich Airport CEO, Dr Michael Kerkloh, who despite noting that he was from “the analogue generation”, demonstrated that his gateway was indeed a pioneer in the delivery of digital services from both a B2B and B2C perspective.

Pre-conference seminars Warnings about restrictions on alcohol sales and the danger of losing tobacco related revenues altogether from airport duty free operations were highlighted by several speakers during the Commercial Revenues Forum, one of four mini-summits held the day before the conference began.

In a session designed to flag up some of the challenges facing airport retail, Sarah Branquinho, president of the European Travel Retail Confederation, urged African airports to “proactively assist in resisting any new regulation that impeded commercial revenues”.

She insisted that the threat of a worldwide ban on the sale of tobacco products in airport duty free shops is very real, primarily due to the World Health Organization (WHO) wrongly assuming that duty free retailers are a major source of the illicit trade of tobacco. An accusation, said Branquinho, for which they had “no proof whatsoever”.

A ban, she told delegates, would cost airports “significant revenue” as tobacco currently accounts for 11.4% of all global duty free sales.

She pointed out that Bénin, Gambia and Uganda are among the African nations to already impose bans, although none have been enforced yet.

Clara Perez, travel retail research director for Swiss research agency, M1nd-set, reminded delegates that the duty free and travel retail business enjoyed global sales of $63.5 billion (+2.4%) in 2016 despite the fact that only around half of the 43% of passengers that visit a duty free shop actually buy something.

See you in Brussels Next year’s ACI World Annual Assembly, Conference & Exhibition will be held jointly with ACI Europe in Brussels on June 18-20. Host, Brussels Airport Company (BAC), promises that it will be memorable.

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

AW

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SPECIAL REPORT: OSAKA’S AIRPORTS

Big in Japan

Emmanuel Menanteau, Co-CEO of Kansai Airports, tells Joe Bates more about the company’s ambitions for Osaka’s airports and the Japanese market.

I

n terms of the privatisation of its airports, Japan is a relative newcomer to the stage, so the world was watching when an international consortium signed an $18 billion deal to operate and develop Osaka’s Kansai and Itami airports until 2060.

The consortium – spearhead by global airport operator VINCI Airports and Japanese financial firm ORIX Corporation – was certainly entering new territory when the concession began on April 1, 2016, as the Japanese government had never before handed over control of one of its existing gateways to the private sector.

How would the airlines respond to the change in dynamics?

Was the fee too high considering the work that needed to be done in terms of infrastructure enhancements to Osaka (Itami) International Airport?

And what could the new concessionaire, Kansai Airports, do that the government couldn’t to stimulate traffic growth in a mature aviation market with an aging population and where new infrastructure costs come at a premium?

The company’s recent announcement that it will expand its Japanese portfolio by taking over the operation of nearby Kobe Airport from April 1, 2018, probably tells you all you need to know about the success to date of the Osaka airports concession.

Indeed, Kansai Airports intends to operate Kansai International Airport (KIX), the newly rebranded Itami – now known as Osaka International Airport (ITM) – and Kobe Airport (UKB), located in Kobe City just 35 kilometres from Osaka, as one airport system in the future.

“The concession fee was never an issue because building KIX on a man made island 40 kilometres south of Osaka was a huge operation and the government always wanted to recover its investment,” says Kansai Airports’ Co-CEO, Emmanuel Menanteau.

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“How have the airlines responded to the change of owners? All of them have been very positive because they have seen that we are committed to developing the airports and have introduced a new pricing structure that is designed to stimulate traffic growth.

“What do we bring to the table as a private operator? “We bring investment and international best practice and skills in operating airports.

“We are quite unique in our business model in that we invest in, design and operate airports with the aim of enhancing capacity.”

Talking about how the first 18 months of the five decade long concession have gone, he adds: “I would say we have done well and look forward to doing even better over the coming years.

“Traffic is up at both airports since we took over the concession.

We have also been quite successful in expanding Kansai’s route network, overseen the expansion of Terminal 2 at KIX, and are now looking to complete the enhancement of the facilities at ITM.” He also reveals that the company has introduced a number of new technologies and processes to the Japanese market such as Smart Security, Fast Travel and ‘Smart Lanes’, which he believes have “changed some of the rules of the game with airlines and some stakeholders”.

The appeal of Japan To those that thought that there was little to no future growth left in the Japanese market, think again, and Menanteau has little hesitation in stating that there is much more to come.

His confidence is, in part, boosted by the fact that Japan has only embraced the low-cost carrier phenomenon in the last few years and, as KIX and ITM have proved since Kansai Airports took over the concession, route development will follow if airlines are offered the right incentive schemes.

SPECIAL REPORT: OSAKA’S AIRPORTS

Osaka International Airport (Itami) was the city’s main gateway until the 1994 opening of Kansai International Airport, built on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka Bay.

“We [VINCI Airports] never had any doubt about the appeal of the Japanese market and, with our experience in construction and operating airports, and with the support of our Japanese partner, ORIX, we feel that we can grow the business,” says Menanteau.

“In many ways it is a typical VINCI Airports concession in that it requires a high demand in capital, but is a long-term investment with expected good returns.”

VINCI and ORIX each have a 40% stake in Kansai Airports with the remaining 20% of the shares owned by local investors.

He says that giving investors and bankers “good visibility” about the long-term objectives of airport concessions usually helps secure the backing required for construction intensive projects, which he reveals generally offer a quicker, but smaller, return on investments.

“Although Japan is a mature aviation market and traffic growth has been quite flat, in recent years the government has made a big push to promote tourism, and this has had a positive impact on visitor numbers, particularly from China, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” says Menanteau.

“The campaign has actually exceeded its targets for the last two years, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise really as Japan has a great product. Tourists have a great desire and willingness to visit the country, and I am pleased to say that today, KIX is the number one airport in Japan for Chinese and Korean visitors.”

He notes that the government fell just short of achieving its target of attracting 20 million international visitors annually to Japan by 2015 and is now aiming for 40 million by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympic Games, and 60 million by 2030.

And with a record 30 million visitors expected to visit Japan in 2017, it is arguably ahead of the game in its 2020 target.

Traffic growth In terms of traffic growth at its airports, rising tourist numbers and the continued growth of the low-cost carriers in the domestic market, helped make 2016 a record year for passenger traffic at Osaka’s airports.

A total of 25.7 million passengers (+7%) used KIX in FY2016 and the upturn, primarily being driven by a rise in international traffic, has continued this year with round 27.5 million passengers (+7%) expected to have passed through the gateway by year-end.

While ITM handled 15.1 million passengers (+3%) in FY2016 and, despite its capacity constraints, its numbers were up by around 4% in the nine months ending September 30, 2017.

The introduction of a new pricing structure for the airlines, which includes reduced landing and parking fees for carriers launching new routes, certainly seems to have made an impact at KIX where AirAsia X commenced non-stop services to Honolulu in June and Qantas will resume flights to Sydney in December after a 10 year absence.

Scoot also recently announced that it plans launching services to Honolulu from KIX as well as transpacific services to North America using B787 Dreamliner aircraft.

New airlines launching services from KIX in 2017 have included Jetstar Pacific (Hanoi and Da Nang) and Air Seoul (Seoul Incheon).

Menanteau is quick to point out that KIX boasts more direct routes to China today than either Tokyo’s Narita or Haneda airports, and is actively working to add more, along with new services to South East Asia, which is a key focus area for the airport.

He suggests that narrow-body aircraft such as the A320neo and B737 Max now make it possible to serve a number of new destinations in South East Asia from KIX, and is keen to explore the options with different airlines.

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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SPECIAL REPORT: OSAKA’S AIRPORTS

The top five airlines at KIX today in terms of passenger numbers are Peach, the Jetstar Group (Jetstar Airways, Jetstar Asia Airways, Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Pacific Airlines), Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Cathay Pacific.

LCC growth at KIX Menanteau reveals that the LCCs, led by Peach, now account for 42% of all passengers at KIX. Talking about the rise of the LCCs in Japan, which first entered the market in 2012 and now account for 10% of the world’s third largest domestic market, Menanteau says: “For a number of reasons Japan got its first LCCs much later than most other countries in Asia, and they are quickly making up for lost time.

“They have made it easier and more affordable to fly domestically. They are cheaper to use than the high-speed trains and have really changed the way people travel within Japan.

“We have also seen the introduction into the market of nonJapanese LCCs such as AirAsia X and Scoot, which are developing Japan as a hub for international traffic.”

Other LCCs serving the Japanese domestic market from KIX include Jetstar Japan and All Nippon Airways subsidiary, Vanilla Air, which is quickly evolving into a medium to long-haul operator.

Infrastructure development More visitors/people inevitably means a country needs to upgrade its infrastructure to cope with demand, and Japan is no different.

The country is fast building new hotels, developing its road and rail networks and enhancing facilities at tourist sites to ensure that it is equipped to cope with long-term growth.

The January 2017 opening of the expanded Terminal 2 at Kansai Airport means KIX currently has the capacity to accommodate predicted growth for the foreseeable future, but Menanteau states that improvements still need to be made to Terminal 1 to make it more operationally efficient.

“We are currently in the study phase for the reconfiguration and renovation of Terminal 1 as the high growth in international traffic since 2010, while its domestic numbers have remained relatively

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static, has created some capacity issues as the facility was designed for an equal split between international and domestic operations.

“The imbalance in growth levels means that the international part of the terminal is always busy and congested and the domestic terminal sometimes looks empty.

“Re-organising the terminal will allow us to reset the balance because at the moment we are tight for space for international operations and have capacity on the domestic side.”

Terminal 1 is expected to handle around 22 million passengers this year with international operations accounting for the bulk of the operations and 85% of all traffic at KIX. KIX’s new-look Terminal 2, a dedicated LCC facility currently used

by Peach and Spring Airlines, now spans 66,000sqm and boasts separate ‘international’ and ‘domestic’ complexes and a host of new retail/F&B and passenger friendly facilities.

These include the first walk-through duty free stores in Japan, Smart Security lanes, reconfigured and easier to use drop off and pick up zones, additional bus stops and car parking for up to 1,600 vehicles.

Menanteau says: “It maybe a low-cost terminal, but it is definitely not a no frills facility in terms of its facilities.”

Kansai Airports is also overseeing ITM’s first major upgrade in nearly 50 years, investing much more than required under the terms of the concession to create a more efficient and user-friendly terminal.

“In terms of innovation and facilitation, we are going to create a real Fast Travel experience with Smart Security in order to ensure quick and easy passage through the terminal,” he enthuses.

“Why are we doing this? Because we feel that ITM faces direct competition from the Shinkansen high-speed trains, especially on the Osaka–Tokyo route, where it takes up to 85% of the traffic. If we are to tempt people to change their travelling habits and go by plane, getting stuck at security for half an hour doesn’t work.

“We are also going to increase the range and variety of commercial offerings in the terminal. The new additions will include a walk-through shopping mall after security and a revitalised landside that we hope will appeal to local people and encourage them to visit the airport to shop, dine and be entertained.

� �ri a A rport AIRPOiRTS COUNCIL INTERNATIONAL

13 h ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly, Conference & Exhibit on

NARITA 2018

For further inquiries www.aci-asiapac.aero I events@aci-asiapaclfic.aero

April 23-25, 2018 Nerita. Japan

SPECIAL REPORT: OSAKA’S AIRPORTS

Osaka’s Kansai International Airport is on target to handle a record 27.5 million passengers in 2017.

“New landside facilities will include a kids park, a business zone, an expanded third-floor terrace and new shops and restaurants, some of which will offer high quality dining. Sense of place reflecting the Osaka region will be central to everything.”

Three-airport system Menanteau says that the addition of Kobe Airport to its Japanese airport portfolio next year, following the signing of a 42-year concession contract with owners Kobe City, gives Kansai Airports the opportunity to activate a three airport system in collaboration with local stakeholders.

Although Kobe Airport is tiny in comparison to both KIX and ITM, and capacity constrained because it is limited to 60 aircraft movements daily and has a night curfew, he believes that it offers Kansai Airports the opportunity to develop the gateway in time.

It is currently working on formulating a strategy for all three airports, which it aims perfecting with local stakeholders represented on a newly reformed airport council devoted to ensuring the future success of the gateways.

“We have decided to reactivate the council that used to exist here and is 100% focused on developing a common strategy for all three airports,” he says.

“A common vision is required. What kind of passengers, what kind of airlines and what strategic direction do we want to take for each airport?”

He goes on: “It will be interesting to find out whether it will be possible to de-regulate Kobe Airport in the future so that we can bring international airlines and international traffic to the city.

“Also, if this is possible, what kind of airlines do we want to serve the airport – legacy or LCC? Do we want to develop Kobe more as a tourist or business destination? It may, for example, be best suited to the development of more specialised traffic such as

medical tourism because of the city’s large number of hospitals and medical facilities.

“We also believe that there is room to develop business jet operations, FBO activities and charter flights due to its downtown city location.”

Council members which will help Kansai Airports make these decisions include local mayors, the chambers of commerce of Kansai, Osaka and Kobe and a number of associations, organisations and tourism boards.

He points out that KIX and ITM do not compete against each other today and never really have as each airport handles a different type of traffic.

Indeed, ITM was supposed to close after KIX opened in 1994, but never did largely due to its support from communities living to the north of Osaka who complained that it would take them over an hour to get to the new airport for flights of less than an hour.

The Kansai region, it is worth noting, has a large and affluent population of 22 million people and a GDP on a par with that of the Netherlands and almost as big as South Korea, so when the community speaks, politicians normally listen!

A condition of the airport’s reprieve, however, is that ITM is limited to handling domestic traffic and has a cap on aircraft movements and a night curfew.

With ITM already at its limit for aircraft movements, Menanteau admits that the only way additional capacity can be squeezed out of the airport is through the upgauging of aircraft, which operators All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have started to do over the last year.

With traffic on the rise, ongoing infrastructure enhancements at both KIX and ITM, and work about to commence on a longterm strategic plan for a three-airport system that includes Kobe, Osaka’s gateways are certainly in safe hands with Kansai Airports.

AW

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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ACI WORLDHEAD NEWS RUNNING

World in motion Sabrina Guerrieri reports on plans for a new Customer Excellence Global Summit, the official launch of ACI’s Airport Excellence (APEX) in Security programme and the latest world traffic forecast.

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CI World has selected Halifax Stanfield International Airport as host for the inaugural Customer Excellence Global Summit, which will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, between September 9–13, 2018.

The event is in response to the aviation industry’s ever-increasing global focus on customer service and appetite for knowledge about how airports can improve the customer experience.

The conference will combine the traditional multiple ASQ Forums held throughout the year into one international annual ASQ Forum and Summit, providing the industry with a much needed platform to exchange bestpractices and lessons learned on providing the airport customer experience, challenges and trends, and how ever-evolving technology impacts customer experience management.

The one-day Forum and following two-day Summit will be open to ASQ subscribers as well as those airports who desire information about the ASQ programme.

In addition, the event will include a Gala dinner and the prestigious annual ASQ Awards, presented to airports whose passengers have rated them the highest over the course of a year, based on their demonstrated commitment to providing excellent customer experience.

The tripartite event is expected to attract a large number of delegates and provide Halifax Stanfield, the city and province, with international exposure and business development opportunities.

Pictured above are Halifax International Airport Authority’s CEO, Joyce Carter (centre) and Board chair, Wadih Fares (right) receiving their gateway’s 2016 ASQ Award for being voted the joint third best airport in North America from ACI World’s incoming vice chairman, Martin Eurnekián (left).

“ACI is delighted that Halifax Stanfield will be the first to host the inaugural Customer Excellence Global Summit,” said ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, on announcing the new event at the recent ACI Africa/World Assembly in Port Louis, Mauritius.

“They have proven themselves dedicated to continuous improvement of the customer experience at the airport, using the feedback they receive from their customers through the ASQ programme as a management tool. Their ASQ Award demonstrates the success of their efforts.”

ACI also used the occasion of its 27th Africa/World Assembly to officially launch its Airport Excellence (APEX) in Security programme. The launch followed a presentation by Mam Sait Jallow, regional director of ICAO’s Western and Central African (WACAF) Office; and, a case study from Romesh Bhoyroo, CEO of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport in Mauritius, where the first pilot programme review was completed in 2016.

With the continuous and evolving security threat challenging the aviation industry, and a strong demand for compliance with standards coming from the UN Security Council, ICAO and governments, it has become imperative that airports have the most effective, appropriate and cost-effective security measures in place.

APEX in Security plays a key role in helping airports understand where they can improve, in terms of security standards, best practice and operational efficiency.

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AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

APEX in Security is run on similar lines to the popular APEX in Safety programme. It uses international standards and recommended practices supplemented by implementation guidelines as its base, and expert views of seasoned practitioners from airports around the world.

“A sustainable aviation industry is built upon a foundation of safety and security,” said Gittens. “I am pleased to officially launch APEX in Security, one year after having signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICAO, which sees both organisations working more closely towards the objectives of the programme.

“I hope that many airports will benefit from the knowledge, expertise and leadership of the community of airports. Every airport can benefit and every airport can contribute.”

Building on the success of APEX in Security in Mauritius, six further pilot reviews were conducted at member airports in Africa and Asia Pacific, and a strong pipeline of reviews is now being developed for the balance of 2017 and 2018.

Finally, the new World Airport Traffic Forecasts (WATF) 2017–2040 is now available at www.aci.aero/watf. Boasting traffic forecasts for over 100 country markets, the WATF dataset presents detailed metrics which include total number of passengers (broken down into international and domestic traffic), total air cargo and total aircraft movements.

Absolute figures, compounded annual growth rates (CAGR), market shares and global growth contributions are presented over three time horizons: short, medium and long-term over the 2017–2040 period.

With global traffic reaching the 7.7 billion passenger mark in 2016, and expected to double by 2031 based on a projected growth rate of 4.9% per annum, the WATF is an indispensable decision-making resource for airports, businesses and investors.

The WATF is distributed in a standard EXCEL format and includes analyses, summary tables, predicted rankings and charts as well as the full dataset of forecasts. For a detailed understanding of the methodologies used to produce the forecasts, please refer to www.aci.aero/watf to download the ACI Guide to World Airport Traffic Forecasts.

ACI WORLD NEWS

ACI events

2018

2018

2018

2018

2018

April 9-11

June 18-20

April 13-17

September 9-13

April 23-25

Airport Economics & Finance Conference London, UK

ACI Europe/ACI World Annual General Assembly, Conference & Exhibition Brussels, Belgium

ACI Africa Regional General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition Lagos, Nigeria

ACI World Customer Excellence Global Summit Halifax, Canada

ACI Asia-Pacific Regional Assembly, Conference & Exhibition Narita, Japan

ACI offices ACI World Angela Gittens Director General PO Box 302 800 Rue du Square Victoria Montréal, Quebec H4Z 1G8 Canada Tel: +1 514 373 1200 Fax: +1 514 373 1201 aci@aci.aero www.aci.aero

ACI Fund for Developing Nations’ Airports Angela Gittens Managing Director Tel: + 1 514 373 1200 Fax: +1 514 373 1201 acifund@aci.aero

ACI Africa Ali Tounsi Secretary General Casablanca, Morocco Tel: +212 660 156 916 atounsi@aci-africa.aero www.aci-africa.aero

ACI Latin America & Caribbean Javier Martinez Botacio Director General Panama City, Panama Tel: +507 830 5657/58 jmartinez@aci-lac.aero www.aci-lac.aero

ACI Asia-Pacific Patti Chau Regional Director Hong Kong SAR, China Tel: +852 2180 9449 Fax: +852 2180 9462 info@aci-asiapac.aero www.aci-asiapac.aero

ACI Europe Olivier Jankovec Director General Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (2) 552 0978 Fax: +32 (2) 502 5637 danielle.michel@aci-europe.org www.aci-europe.org

ACI North America Kevin Burke President & CEO Washington DC, USA Tel: +1 202 293 8500 Fax: +1 202 331 1362 postmaster@aci-na.org www.aci-na.org

Airports Council International (ACI), the trade association of the world’s airports, was founded in 1991 with the objective of fostering cooperation among its member airports and other partners in world aviation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation. In representing the best interests of airports during key phases of policy development, ACI makes a significant contribution toward ensuring a global air transport system that is safe, secure, efficient and environmentally sustainable.

As of January 2017, ACI serves 623 members operating 1,940 airports in 176 countries.

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

AW

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View from the top

ACI VIEWPOINT

ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, reflects on the launch of New Experience in Travel and Technologies (NEXTT), the latest joint ACI/IATA initiative.

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assenger and cargo travel processes will need to change dramatically in the near and distant future in light of projected air traffic growth.

Passenger traffic worldwide is expected to reach 22.3 billion by 2040 and air cargo volumes are forecasted to increase at an annualised rate of 2.5% for the same period.

Airports, airlines and stakeholders will increasingly be challenged to optimise the use of emerging technologies, processes and design developments.

ACI and its airport members work together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and their airline members to deliver this future to the coming travellers and shippers. Together we have launched the New Experience in Travel and Technologies (NEXTT) initiative.

The initiative seeks to provide a seamless journey by exploring increased off-site processing options; reducing or even eliminating queues; more efficiently using space and resources through enhanced deployments of artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and robotics; and, vastly improving the sharing of data between stakeholders.

The underpinning goal of NEXTT is to align the industry’s vision and find potential ways to better integrate systems and improve operations in the most secure, effective and sustainable manner for the benefit of passengers and the industry.

Specifically, NEXTT will investigate how passengers, cargo, baggage and aircraft move through the complete travel journey with a focus on change in three areas: • Off-airport activities: NEXTT will promote possibilities of transferring on-site processes to off-site options, such as security processing and baggage check and drop-off, to streamline the airport experience. Activities that historically require manual checks could now occur as a digital process, in turn improving the convenience for customers and alleviating bottlenecks at the airport.

• Advanced processing technology: NEXTT will encourage industry stakeholders to investigate how advance processing technology, such as tracking and identification technology, automation and robotics can improve safety, security, the airport passenger experience and operational efficiency.

• Interactive decision-making: NEXTT will promote the better use of data, predictive modelling and artificial intelligence to facilitate real-time decision-making, a key element in improving the passenger experience and optimising operational efficiency.

Other ACI initiatives that support the NEXTT philosophy include Airport Community Recommended Information Services (ACRIS), a framework for the exchange of data between stakeholders; airport beacons to facilitate wayfinding and general interactions with airport customers; biometric smart identification such as facial recognition to improve throughput; improved screening processes, facilitated through the ACI-IATA Smart Security programme; the Airport Service Quality Programme (ASQ), the global benchmarking programme measuring passengers’ satisfaction while they are travelling through an airport; and, the release of the ACI Airport Digital Transformation Best Practice.

We also work with governmental authorities to enhance their processes for clearing passengers and freight, improving safety, security, regulatory compliance and efficiency.

Today’s airports are no longer just places where airplanes take off and land. Instead, airports are vital economic generators providing gateways to their cities, states, regions and countries.

Airports operate in a competitive environment and are focused more than ever on increasing their community’s share of air travel and tourism, innovating and maintaining a strong focus on improving operations and the customer experience.

Now is the time for airport leaders throughout the globe to embrace NEXTT, as a means of leveraging the use of emerging technologies, processes and design developments.

AW

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SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

Intelligent airports Airports need to get smarter and not just bigger in order to meet the operational and capacity challenges of tomorrow, writes Kelly Allen.

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ivil aviation is booming, the tumbling cost of air travel helping create one of the fastest growing industries in the world as air passenger volumes and airline revenues continue to grow at a rapid pace.

The upward trajectory in traffic is, however, only adding to the pressure on airports, which are under constant scrutiny to maintain or enhance their performance as passenger numbers continue to grow and the number of routes and flights increase.

Going forward, there is a very real need for airports to improve their operational efficiency and profitability, and increasingly we are seeing that it is new technologies that are making the difference in terms of efficiencies for capacity constrained airports.

Further to this, ineffective implementation will increase the potential for these new devices to place a strain on network resources, introduce new vulnerabilities and affect traveller experience.

Yes, aviation industry players need to align, but airports in particular need to evolve towards cost-efficient IP-based solutions for most systems.

This will immediately enable better connectivity between people, processes and smart ‘things’ – and also simplify IT management. This is where the connected airport comes in.

New technology taking off Before looking at expansion, airports need to look inwards. According to SITA’s Air Transport IT Trends Insights 2017, airports will spend more than $8 billion this year on IT services, with a big leap in R&D focus on biometric identity and artificial intelligence.

The Internet of Things (IoT), automation, big data, robots, AI and virtual reality are becoming part of the civil aviation ecosystem, along with integrated data collection and better real-time communications channels.

To make the most of these technologies, airports need to put in place processes that simplify and speed up collaboration within aviation communities.

Managing a complex ecosystem In both operational and customer facing roles, the potential for IoT-enabled connected assets to streamline processes cannot be understated. Real-time visibility into the condition of assets or location-based services, and beacons for wayfinding and asset tracking.

Digital marketing and signage, live information sharing, remote sensors for monitoring runway or environmental conditions, IP cameras linking to facial recognition software or enabling whole digital control towers. Baggage handling, passenger tracking and self check-in – it’s everywhere.

However, it’s a near impossible task to manage all these types of technology if they are rooted to individual subsystems which all need their own management and maintenance.

No matter what digital tools, platforms or systems airports choose to adopt, they will never reach their full potential without the right network or communication building blocks.

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Digital security – managing IoT a top priority across the board Whether its IP security cameras, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems or information boards, running all processes on a single network infrastructure is more cost-effective to manage and maintain, and offers much greater visibility on an enterprise-wide scale.

But there are dangers to poorly secured deployments and any compromised device can be a possible backdoor into the network. As more fixed and mobile devices connect to the network edge, it becomes increasingly important that these IoT devices are properly contained.

With network virtualisation techniques, it is possible to create virtual isolated environments on a single infrastructure and make IoT more manageable. This enables different teams or departments to maintain their own IoT network deployments.

Virtual segmentation on the network can create ‘IoT containers’ to group together, manage and secure devices and users, and in the event of a breach, can stop threats moving east-to-west across the network.

IoT containment also makes it possible for the different departments to enforce their own quality of service (QoS) policies on the network to optimise their own operational processes.

In each virtual IoT container it is possible to see and manage all the traffic and users, prioritise devices and applications, reserve or limit bandwidth, blacklist devices or monitor for suspicious traffic patterns.

QoS policy enforcement can ensure that critical operational processes or network assets can always get the network resources they need to function properly.

SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

A high tech airport in action: Sydney Airport’s SmartGates have reduced average processing times to just 23 seconds.

Providing stakeholder co-operation and collaboration Enterprises are shifting towards connected platforms, where people, processes and ‘things’ can connect and collaborate, airports included.

The complicated community of stakeholders – airport operators, airlines, groundhandlers, passengers, authorities and regulators – can all benefit from removing the barriers to information flow.

Airports can manage passenger movement, optimise operations and implement better emergency communications.

Airlines can provide a hassle-free customer experience by relying on infrastructure such as beacons for automated notifications.

Passengers can get real-time updates about estimated waiting time at security lines, locations of specific airline check-in counters, gates or baggage belts.

And retail concessions and restaurants can use location-based services to promote offers, which will lead to increased interaction with passengers and a subsequent increase in revenue.

Critical passenger or situational information can be shared directly between relevant parties in real-time – getting the right information to the right people, exactly when it is needed.

Open APIs – the key to connecting people with processes For this to happen, systems need to be de-siloed and communication tools, such as instant messaging, voice, document sharing, video and alerts, need to be integrated directly into applications and systems.

This is possible with open APIs beginning to come from some of the world’s leading communications vendors – giving technology partners and third-party providers the opportunity to make communication and collaboration tools a central feature of digital airport services, not a disconnected afterthought.

With open APIs in cloud-based communication platforms, developers can add real-time communication features in their own applications without needing to build or extend backend infrastructure and interfaces.

Open APIs allow for the integration with current in-house and third-party apps, providing a separate and secure environment - allowing multiple users to access the platform at the same time.

These ‘open’ platforms enable developers to extend these connections to stand-alone infrastructures, opening the door to new working models based with innovations such as IoT, AI and taskautomating bots.

Having open APIs behind communications platforms can also allow airport operators and passengers to benefit from proactive notification services which incorporate security devices, operational equipment and even fire safety alarms into one connected communications platform – with the goal of increasing safety, avoiding production downtimes and securing buildings.

Intelligent airports – not just a vision, but a reality To meet these challenges, airports need innovative solutions and infrastructure must be used more intelligently.

Airports need to use technology to make the most of their budget and resources, to manage rising volumes of travellers, meet the increasing demands of tech-savvy passengers and commercial tenants.

The need for real-time information exchange will see airports adopt new technologies for a free-flow of communication.

Innovations that integrate smart devices and share information at every point of a passenger’s journey, and enable greater communication between civil aviation stakeholders, will play a vital role.

But rolling out the right infrastructure needs careful planning, an eye on future developments and a security-first approach – from customer-facing services, right down to the hardware.

The intelligent airport is more than a vision, it’s a must have.

With the right infrastructure, it has the potential to become a global reality.

AW

About the author Kelly Allen is director of transportation in Europe north for communications and networking provider, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE).

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

One direction Arup’s global aviation business leader, Ian Taylor, ponders how autonomous vehicles will shape the airport of the future.

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utonomous vehicles are coming, and they are going to change the way we move. It’s been estimated that they could create a $42 billion market by 2025.

Indeed, airports have contributed to the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs), providing an environment where the technology can serve particular functions in a controlled manner.

As the AV industry takes off, however, airports are under growing pressure. IATA figures show that growth in the global air passenger traffic market reached a 12-year high in the first half of 2017, yet over half of airports globally are loss making.

Airports need to become more efficient and consider new business models to drive profitability – autonomous vehicles provide this opportunity.

Improving passenger experience – within the airport Getting around an airport can be one of the most stressful parts of a journey. Major hubs by their nature are big and busy – Heathrow caters for over 75 million passengers annually with a total size of 1,227 hectares.

In fact, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is the largest free-standing structure in the UK, with 2.8 miles of tunnels and a roof area the size of five football pitches.

The use of AVs can dramatically improve the passenger experience within airports of this size. Heathrow, for example, offers batterypowered, driverless Personal Rapid Transit pods, which provide a ‘last-mile’ transport solution, shuttling passengers from the long-stay car park to Terminal 5.

The on-demand vehicles have helped reduce congestion and cut emissions by replacing a fleet of shuttle buses, which made approximately 70,000 journeys back and forth each year.

Elsewhere, passengers with accessibility issues are transported around airport terminals via buggies. With the development of AV technology these could become driverless too, allowing the current operators to be redeployed to other customer-facing roles.

Similar vehicles could also transport passengers between terminals – improving the customer experience and opening up revenue-generating opportunities if positioned as a premium, paid-for service.

Increasing airside efficiency With airports looking to technology to improve efficiency and increase profitability, AVs could have a role in streamlining airside processes.

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SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY Indeed, with many vehicles travelling around the airport’s apron, such as shuttle buses, fuel and baggage trucks, and mobile access steps, there is potential here for AVs to be used.

For a start, these vehicles could be controlled centrally, meaning that operators could take a holistic view to drive efficiency gains. As part of this, vehicles could be redeployed at a moment’s notice, without today’s reliance on driver availability.

AVs will also have the capability of streamlining baggage transport and delivery. At the moment, bags are loaded manually from the conveyer belt, into a container, onto a tug and then driven to the plane.

Given that the routes bags travel are pre-defined, there is the potential to automate much of this, with AVs playing their part in moving bags from the building to the plane or around the terminals.

Airports providing door-to-door experience

Smart shuttles at Christchurch Airport The shape of things to come arguably arrived at Christchurch Airport earlier this year when the New Zealand gateway trialled an autonomous Smart Shuttle, writes Joe Bates.

The 15-passenger capacity vehicle had no steering wheel and is electric powered.

Airport chief executive, Malcolm Johns, reveals that his team is keen to understand how autonomous shuttles might operate at Christchurch Airport and how people may react and interact with them.

“We can see the potential for driverless vehicles to transform and enhance mobility and transport options on the airport campus,” admits Johns.

“We want to explore the possibility of deploying autonomous vehicles to assist people moving around our campus efficiently and sustainably, so we formed a partnership with HMI Technologies to consider how we might make this happen.”

HMI Technologies is New Zealand’s leading Intelligent Transport System (ITS) provider and Dave Verma, director of Australasian driverless vehicle technologies, says the company was involved in the vehicle trial for three key reasons.

Speaking at the time of the trials, Verma said: “Firstly, as an intelligent transport systems innovator, our R&D and business development teams will get vital hands-on experience.

“We also hope the trial will prove the efficacy of autonomous vehicles to commercial operators like Christchurch Airport, and to government decision makers.

“Additionally we want the New Zealand public and students to have the opportunity to participate and provide feedback on the experience.

“HMI sees that the AV vehicle technology is emerging at a rapid pace and there are opportunities for New Zealand to be at the forefront of this technology.”

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A number of airlines are offering their premium customers a chauffeur service to and from the airport. However nobody yet has seized the opportunity to position themselves as end-to-end transport providers.

The experience of airports using AV technology already provides them with the opportunity to lead the way in providing the whole door-to-door journey for their customers.

In addition to generating new revenue streams, these intelligent vehicles, and the data they generate, could provide airports with far greater insights in terms of capacity planning, crowd-modelling, real-time staff requirements and security needs.

Much of this will be dependent on the collaboration and integration between the various, relevant stakeholders, including the airlines and external/public transport providers.

A co-ordinated approach is absolutely essential to truly delivering a seamless passenger experience within these developments.

If this was integrated with airport baggage systems, then these cars could pick up a passenger’s bags before collecting them from the pickup point at a set time – leaving travellers to move through security, relax with a coffee or do more shopping, before traveling home.

Becoming a true ‘destination’ AVs will dramatically reduce the amount of car parking space needed.

Today, car parks generate around 20-30% of an airport’s revenue but, while losing parking income may be a daunting prospect for airports, it does present opportunity.

Research by customer loyalty specialists, ICLP, found nearly a third of travellers would arrive at an airport earlier if it offered engaging entertainment or exhibitions.

The real estate freed up by car parks will be key to this, providing a place for shopping malls or cinemas to attract investment, entice a new customer base and unlock new revenue streams.

It would also give passengers waiting for flights more to do should their departure be delayed. This isn’t something that’s entirely new – some places, such as Singapore Changi Airport, are already frequented by visitors who aren’t flying – but it’s something that’ll develop significantly over the coming years.

In summary, it is important that airports look to capitalise on AV technology – to look to drive efficiencies and open up new revenue streams.

This technology brings the potential to directly improve the experience passengers have when they travel, supporting the evolution of the airport AW from transport hub to a destination in its own right.

SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

The next big thing?

It is early days for Blockchain technology, but it has the potential to offer significant benefits to airports and passengers, writes Amadeus Airport Solutions’ Holger Mattig.

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he aviation industry is highly resilient, constantly evolving and innovating at a great pace, its willingness to embrace new technology arguably being driven by the changing demands of travellers as much as by the rapid development of the technology itself.

Every few years a new buzzword in technology arrives, bringing with it many possibilities for innovation. One of the latest is Blockchain. A new type of decentralised database that has the potential to impact the banking industry, with new crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, forward-thinking start-ups have begun to identify possible use cases for the technology across other industries, including travel.

The travel industry, involving as it does multiple different stakeholders in any one journey, seems to lend itself well to the adoption of Blockchain technology. This is because Blockchain relies on a network of collaborative players, all with the capacity to verify transactions for each other.

While it is early days and the roll-out of these initiatives are probably still five to seven years away; we have identified three likely use-cases for Blockchain in the travel industry, two of which are very relevant to the airport environment.

Enhance baggage handling The first is baggage tracking. Presently, this is a complex process, which involves many decentralised players.

Indeed, the passenger must deliver the bag to the airport check-in desk or self-service bag drop counter. The bag is then processed and a message is sent to the relevant service providers, such as ground handling, to let them know the bag has been dropped off and is ready to be loaded onto the plane.

Upon arrival, this all happens again with different members of staff and, eventually, the passenger is handed back their bag and leaves the airport happy.

However, this is not always the case, and with so many steps in this process, it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact location of a bag and determine who is responsible for it at that time. This means bags can go missing and the process goes from baggage tracking, to baggage tracing.

The challenge here is that each airline and airport may have different systems, which aren’t always interoperable, so it is hard to quickly find data. But with Blockchain technology, the tracking of bags could be made far simpler.

This is because it could provide an immutable record of where the bag is on a database that could be viewed by all parties.

Not only would this speed up back-end processes, but it would also provide peace of mind for the traveller, who could potentially track their own bag, perhaps using a mobile app.

When relationships between passengers and airlines or airports are ever more important in a competitive and crowded marketplace, this kind of service could play an important role in keeping travellers happy and bolstering loyalty.

AIRPORT WORLD/DECEMBER 2017-JANUARY 2018

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SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

Making traveller identification

Blockchain is exciting but is not without its limitations

As well as keeping track of baggage, it is also – obviously – imperative for airlines and airports to know where their passengers are. Moving from booking to arrival at the destination involves the traveller passing through several touchpoints, such as check-in, boarding and arriving at the hotel, where they must identify themselves – either using their passport or boarding pass.

Imagine how much easier a journey would be if you didn’t need a passport or identification at all these points.

In recent years, much of the focus of traveller identification has been on biometrics. However, it could be possible for passengers to pass through borders using facial recognition for example, with a log of this stored on a Blockchain database.

Blockchain could offer a secure, traceable proof of location that cannot be lost, falsified or deleted by anyone.

While the advantages of Blockchain are clear, it is not without its limitations. The way that Blockchain technology validates transactions can be slower than other kinds of databases.

Clearly, in an airport setting where travellers are keen to get from A to B as quickly as possible and long queues can quickly lead to a backlog of work and therefore delays for the different stakeholders, speed is of the essence.

Blockchain technology is decentralised in nature, meaning it is also drastically different to the centralised cloud-based systems that most airports use today. Before this kind of radical change could be brought about, there would need to be collaboration from across the industry to see how products and services using it could be built and put into operation.

Ultimately, Blockchain technology – like all technology – is the enabler to achieve business goals not the driver.

Products should not simply be created because there is a new technology available, instead the industry must carefully consider whether this is the best mechanism for the task at hand.

It is also imperative that security and privacy considerations are taken into account and not compromised when implementing a new technology of this kind.

While clear use cases for Blockchain do exist, business requirements should drive the technology we use not the other way around, as ultimately that is how most value can be delivered to travellers.

At Amadeus, we are excited about the potential of Blockchain.

However, there is still a lot of work and investment required to fully understand its potential.

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Loyalty systems that deliver and don’t frustrate Today, travellers are often members of various loyalty schemes with disparate points. This is predominantly for airlines and hotels, but increasingly airports are offering loyalty schemes.

This is a particular issue for business travellers, who often have little choice over which airline or airport they fly through, as this is often booked by their organisation.

And it can lead to a frustrating situation whereby a large amount of points has been built up; but the traveller finds it difficult to redeem them.

However, imagine if you could store all your loyalty points in a single digital wallet and redeem them easily whilst also sending or sharing points with friends via an app.

Blockchain could allow business travellers to share their points with their families, or frequent flyers, or to treat a friend to an otherwise unattainable trip.

By improving the underlying interoperability of disparate loyalty programmes in an automated and real-time way, Blockchain means points can be much more universal, like cash is today and therefore more likely to be redeemed.

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About the author Holger Mattig is head of product management for Amadeus Airport Solutions.

SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

Volumes better Smarter warehouses and new strategic alliances will transform how airports handle cargo in the future, writes Unisys Corporation’s Venkatesh Pazhyanur.

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he Internet of Things (IoT) and voice AI enabled smart devices and systems, warehouse drones and strategic alliances will be key to the airfreight industry capitalising on the e-commerce market.

Indeed, the cargo industry needs to embrace disruptive technologies from the consumer world, including the IoT, digital assistants and drones, to increase efficiency and meet customer expectation for greater transparency throughout the supply chain.

This is particularly true for the Asia-Pacific region, where the air cargo industry is experiencing growth and transformation driven by rapidly increasing capacity supply on passenger flights, and the shift to business-to-consumer small parcel shipments as a result of e-commerce.

Looking forward, growing passenger demand will increase the number of passenger flights and add to cargo capacity supply.

Simultaneously, the popularity of e-commerce is changing the nature of cargo shipments, incrementally increasing the number of small parcels – which is predicted to grow 5% annually in mature markets and by 17% annually in China.

Unisys predicts these market pressures will bring innovation in three areas in the cargo supply chain – smart warehouses will become even smarter, drones will finally take off in the cargo supply chain – but inside the warehouse – and new alliances between airlines and global distributors will enable longer-term capacity management.

Much of the underlying technologies are already being used in other sectors, including the consumer world. But now, more than ever, cargo operators will be forced to embrace such innovation to be more efficient, nimble and proactive in an increasingly competitive and price conscious market.

Unisys cargo experts believe the following predictions will become reality within the next five years or less:

Just as connected wearable devices such as Smartwatches are becoming mainstream in the consumer world, IoT-based technology will create the ‘smart warehouse’ of the future.

Recent innovations such as smart glasses that display information triggered by a barcode or QR code on a container will be taken to a new level by incorporating scanners to automatically capture and input information into the warehouse system, and integrating voice AI to initiate actions.

Similar technology is already used in digital assistants such as Siri, Cortana or Amazon Echo. Unisys expects cargo operators to invest in converting machine commands to voice within the next three years.

Smart warehouses will become a reality To meet the growing demand for small parcel deliveries, warehouses will transform from storage locations to dynamic facilities that utilise IoT and voice artificial intelligence (voice AI) to ensure the faster processing of more shipments, and generate a higher return on the real-estate investment.

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Drones will be used inside the warehouse While drones have become a familiar way to provide TV sports aerial footage, the much-anticipated mainstream rollout of drones to deliver parcels to the customer’s doorstep is hampered by flight space restrictions, government approvals and privacy considerations.

SPECIAL REPORT: IT & NEW TECHNOLOGY

We predict that the more immediate application of drones in the cargo supply chain will be within the confined space of warehouses to conduct inventory checks more often and more accurately, replacing the largely manual process.

Beyond locating lost or misplaced items, the drones will use sensors to monitor environmental information such as light or temperature for perishable food, pharmaceuticals or livestock, and raise alerts to unusual noise or movement that may indicate animals are in distress. Unisys predicts this within the next 12 months.

New alliances between airlines and global distributors With cargo capacity potentially increasing faster than cargo demand due to extra passenger flights and larger aircraft, cargo capacity management has become the number one challenge for airlines.

In this environment of unconstrained capacity, the traditional approach to yield management will not work as airlines may dump cargo space onto the market, creating a price war.

Unisys predicts a fundamental move to longer-term revenue optimisation based on strategic alliances between airlines and organisations with large ongoing delivery requirements, such as postal authorities, major online retailers, global distributors and supply chain management companies.

This will require airlines to provide their alliance partners with transparent real-time access to available capacity and predictive analytics to determine best routes based on speed, reliability and cost.

This expectation for visibility will also extend to the ‘last mile’ of the business-to-consumer cargo supply chain, leading to the development of mobile apps to allow the final recipient to be able to track the approach of their delivery – similar to how consumers currently track an approaching taxi or Uber.

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EVENT NEWS: ATAG SUMMIT

Ambitions, goals and challenges Joe Bates reports on some of the highlights and lesson learned from October’s Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva.

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viation’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and biofuels, which are expected to account for 25% of all jet fuel by 2050, were just a few of the topics discussed during the recent Global Sustainable Aviation Summit.

However, arguably the overriding message to emerge from the annual Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) organised event was for the need for even greater collaboration between industry stakeholders, airport communities and governments across the world going forward to ensure the long-term future of aviation.

And, as ACI World director general, Angela Gittens, pointed out in the ‘Reflections’ session at the end of the summit, ‘sustainability’ is all encompassing and not just about CO2 emissions.

Gittens said: “From an airport point of view we are really dealing with a whole range of sustainability issues and I’m glad to see that some of them, such as land use planning, has been covered here and is now getting global attention.

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“Airports are in the strange position of being global entities, but they are really local entities and can be brought to their knees by local issues.

“We are neighbours to surrounding communities and have to engage with them and the market where we exist as we cannot leave the market and find a better one. So, we have to solve problems and not be the problem in our local areas.”

Having said that, she noted that she was particularly proud of airports’ efforts to reduce their CO2 emissions through ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, particularly as it was “happening in places that it wasn’t required”, and this ensured that many airports were ahead of their governments in showing environmental leadership.

During his opening address, Dr Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, president of the ICAO Council, praised aviation’s commitment to the environment and the success the industry has achieved in persuading the world’s government to join the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) from its outset in 2021.

To date 72 countries representing almost 90% of international flight operations, have agreed to join the initiative, which he admitted had “exceeded our expectations”.

“It is a great testament, I think, to the level of political will which exists to realise meaningful climate change mitigation globally,” he told delegates.

“CORSIA isn’t just important for the aviation industry, it is important for the planet. It represents a very important milestone for air transport, and indeed for the entire world given that it is the very first commitment of its kind for any global industrial sector.”

ATAG’s executive director, Michael Gill, told delegates that the countdown had begun for airlines and governments to prepare for CORSIA, which was agreed by governments meeting at ICAO in late 2016.

The CORSIA is designed to offset the growth in carbon dioxide emissions from international aviation after 2020.

The first six years of the scheme, negotiated by governments and supported by the industry, will be voluntary for States to join. In later years, it will be mandatory for all but the smallest aviation markets.

EVENT NEWS: ATAG SUMMIT

“Airlines included in CORSIA will need to offset their emissions from the first of January 2021, but the scheme comes into effect before then, with compliance needing to begin as early as one year from now,” said Gill.

“Not enough airlines and governments are aware that there are two parts of the CORSIA: the monitoring of emissions; and the offsetting.

“All airlines that fly international routes will need to start monitoring and reporting their fuel use to governments from 2019, with very few exceptions. This applies whether their government has signed up to volunteer for the CORSIA or not.”

He also took the opportunity to highlight ATAG’s newly released report, Flying in Formation, which he described as a guide for the air transport industry to help understand the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in an aviation context.

“The SDGs are designed to set the development agenda until 2030, ensuring that governments, civil society and businesses are all working in the same direction on some of these key issues. Flying in formation, if you like,” commented Gill.

“As a global business sector, we too have to look at the role we play.

There are already actions being undertaken across all 17 SDGs by partners in the industry and we believe that we have a major global influence in seven of them, and at least some influence in a further eight.”

Some of the SDGs where Gill believes aviation has a major influence cover gender equality; reducing inequalities; easy access to affordable and clean energy; climate change; responsible consumption and production; education; sustainable economic growth; and building resilient, innovative infrastructure.

In his keynote address, Ovais Sarmad, deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), spoke about the economic and social importance of aviation, praised the industry’s ability to adapt, innovate and change, and warned that it faced many challenges ahead, possibility the biggest of which is climate change.

“Our goals are to achieve carbon neutrality in the middle of this century, to reduce our carbon footprint. In effect, to do nothing less than reverse the impact of 100 years of emissions in less than half that time,” stated Sarmad.

“Our opposition is time. To put it simply, we no longer have the luxury of it. Gone are the days when we’d speak of climate change in terms of someday this could happen or maybe we should do something tomorrow.

“Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow is today and climate change is happening before our eyes, and the action we take within the next five years will determine whether we are successful or not.”

Talking about the growing impact of climate change on the planet, he said: “From every continent in every corner of the world we read and hear devastating stories about those who have suffered from extreme climate events. There has been a huge cost to these events, and they cannot be measured in any numbers.

“NASA recently reported that the first half of 2017 was the hottest year on record. The previous hottest year was 2016. This is unacceptable and we must do something about it.”

He added that working in partnerships with all stakeholders was the way forward in terms of finding solutions, and said that ICAO and the industry “needed to raise its level of ambition” to combat climate change.

Ending on a positive, Sarmad remarked: “I note with great pleasure that the aviation industry has recognised this responsibility itself and has set the more ambitious target to reduce aviation’s CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050, compared to 2005 levels.

“This is the kind of ambition that every government should be happy to support the aviation industry to achieve.”

Biofuels came under the microscope in a session called ‘Taking alternative energy to new heights’, in which IAG’s group head of sustainability, Jonathan Counsell, stated that biofuels could account for 25% of jet fuel by 2050.

There have now been well over 40,000 commercial flights operated on sustainable fuel, and Counsell noted that although IAG’s customers are increasingly calling for the introduction of biofuels, he felt that they might be so keen if it led to an increase in the price of a ticket.

He revealed that IAG has been looking at biofuels for the last eight years and its commitment to the cause recently led to it unveiling plans to open a waste jet fuel plant in the UK in partnership with Velocys.

However, he insisted that the airline group was very clear that it would not, and could not, pay a premium for alternative fuels as fuel today typically accounted for between 30% and 40% of an airline’s costs.

The panel also included San Francisco International Airport’s chief administration and policy officer, Julian Potter, and Geneva Airport CEO, André Schneider, who outlined their biofuel plans and ambitions for their respective gateways.

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EVENT NEWS: ATAG SUMMIT

Geneva’s Schneider told the summit that although his airport had no direct control over how jet fuel is sold to the airlines, he hoped that biofuel would account for at least 1% of the annual jet fuel consumption at his gateway from late 2018.

“We don’t really want to leave it to whether airlines choose to take renewable fuel or not as we know the higher price of biofuel will mean that it will be used on some flights, but not all,” said Schneider.

“We have, therefore, decided to add a fixed percentage of biofuel to all the fuel supplied at Geneva Airport. The figure will start at 1% and the airport, supported by the government, will pick up the difference in costs.

“This means that the whole process will be totally transparent. The airlines will get their fuel from the same companies that supply them now and they will not pay a cent more for it.”

Also on the panel were James Andersen, business director for green fuels and chemicals at Honeywell UOP; and Dr Bruno Muller, managing director for fuels at Fulcrum Bioenergy.

Both agreed that the lack of funding was proving a huge challenge to the development and commercialisation of biofuels.

“Financing is the hardest part, technology is available, feedstock is too, but it’s putting everything together,” said Miller.

“So, eventually you need a business case for investment, and for that, you need a private institution to invest. But for that you need a stable policy environment, so it’s important that policies stay the same for 10-15 years.”

All the panellists agreed that the industry needs to work in partnership in order to break the aviation’s reliance on fossil fuels and cut CO2 emissions in the air transport sector.

In a brief presentation, Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s director general, revealed that 199 airports, which account for around 40% of the world’s traffic, are now accredited under ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme.

The total includes 35 airports that are carbon neutral, and such has been the success of the programme that ACI Europe has now doubled its carbon neutrality target and is committed to achieving 100 carbon neutral airports by 2030.

Day 2 of the summit started with a presentation about a potential game changing form of transport called the Hyperloop, which could potentially make all other modes of travel redundant in the future by making it possible to cover hundreds of kilometre distances in minutes rather than hours.

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The technology, which is being developed today, involves passengers travelling at high speeds in pods inside a sealed tube or system of sealed tubes, revealed Hyperloop One’s senior vice president of global field operations, Nick Earle.

He suggested that there is even talk of opening one between Amsterdam Schiphol and Lelystad airports in the Netherlands and believes that the new technology could become operational by as early as 2023.

Earle was followed by a quick fire panel principally made up of aircraft manufacturers and engine suppliers who took on the topic of how technology is going to allow the aviation industry to achieve its goal of halving CO2 emissions by 2050.

Next up was a panel discussion called ‘The big picture and future challenges’, during which London City Airport’s CEO and ACI World chairman, Declan Collier, stated that he thought that the rise in protectionism and protectionist government policies across the globe posed a very real danger to the future success of aviation.

He also cited “remaining relevant to the communities that we operate within” and “continuing to attract the right type of resources and talent, in a world which has lots of different opportunities for people to build careers” as other major challenges facing the industry.

The conference ended on a high with the ‘Reflections’ panel where ACI World’s Gittens and other leaders of key aviation industry associations gave their thoughts on the lessons learned during the summit.

Giving his thoughts during the session, IATA director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac noted: “The sustainability development goals have shown us that aviation must have a broader vision than simply carbon emissions and noise mitigation.

“CORSIA is a major achievement but we, the airlines, must now focus and be ready and prepared for its 2020 implementation. The development of sustainable aviation fuels is also a critical issue and it is important that we meet our goals and reduce our carbon emissions by 50% by 2050.

“In this regards we say that the development of aviation fuels must be given the same incentives as alternative fuels in other sectors, and we urge government to do that. We will also focus on using alterative fuels that will not disturb the ecological patterns, and what is encouraging is that we see AW that this is possible.”

PASSENGER FACILITATION

The hospitality business Plaza Premium Group’s Jonathan Song provides his thoughts on future innovation in global airport hospitality.

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ver the past 40 years, global air travel has soared from 472 million passengers per annum in 1976 to 3.7 billion in 2016, and according to The World Bank, this number is forecasted to double to 7.2 billion by 2035.

The decrease of inflated-adjusted airfares, the rise of the middle class – especially in China and India over the past decades – and the emergence of fuel-efficient aircraft and low-cost carriers have all contributed to the growth.

The downside to all this growth, however, is that more passengers passing through the world’s airports than ever before is putting a strain on existing infrastructure, and gateways are having to be increasingly innovative in terms of their customer service offerings and airport hospitality to keep passengers happy.

Going forward, the continued adoption of new experience enhancing technology and taking a more holistic approach to hospitality seem to offer the best solutions for airports in terms of ensuring quick, seamless and enjoyable journeys through their facilities.

Airports are already becoming smarter by investing in emerging and maturing digital, biometric, and automated handling technologies ranging from facial recognition technology to cloud-based check-in systems.

Indeed, the newest technologies on the market have enabled airports to transcend the limitations of bricks-and-mortar and improve the airport experience of travellers.

Sooner or later, boarding passes and passports will take a backseat to be replaced entirely by digital and mobile applications.

Travellers have never been more ready to go digital and utilise self-service and user-friendly systems such as smart luggage tags; automated baggage drop; virtual and augmented reality solutions; and one-stop security checks; while Internet of Things (IoT) applications are expected to become prevalent at most major airports over the next decade.

Leading airports such as Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Amsterdam Schiphol and Singapore Changi are taking concrete steps to turn all of the above into reality.

Major airports in the future will also be more aware of and responsive to travelling trends, and be able to identify leads and formulate strategic plans by harnessing big data.

Current security requirements mean that passengers generally spend more time at airports today than ever before, and as a result, many airlines are starting to emphasise and focus on the customer-centric experience their passengers can expect on the ground.

This is good news for airports, as the strategy should help them in their efforts to stand out from the crowd, build passenger loyalty and subsequently boost their commercial revenues.

We believe that as passenger numbers grow, airports should work more closely with airport business service providers to ensure that the needs of all passengers are being met.

Done successfully this can result in delivering a tailored and superior airport experience for all, and ensure wise investment in future service models and solutions.

Air travel is now a way of life for many and increasingly a lifestyle choice for the younger generation, which means that premium airport hospitality will become essential across a growing number of airports.

Young travellers tend to see airports as destinations and allocate time there to go shopping and pursue unique experiences that are not available elsewhere.

This means that in addition to more traditional hospitality products, passengers increasingly want to see more diversified and sophisticated airport offerings and product lines such as independent lounges, transit hotels, sleeping pods, airside swimming pools, artificial intelligence, thematic facilities and recreational and interactive amenities.

With the continuous adoption of advanced technology and introduction of innovative offerings, the days of air travellers being stressed, confused or lost in airports will soon become history.

Airports are no longer just places people go to catch flights, they are destinations in their own right, and the services and hospitality levels that they provide will play a huge part in how successful they are in the future. AW

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Enhancing the customer experience Europe’s biggest Airport, London Heathrow, has announced that it will launch AOE’s OM³ suite as a significant step in transforming the airports digital experience.

OM³, or Omnichannel Multi-Merchant Marketplace, is a comprehensive suite which multi-retailer venues such as airports can use to digitalise their non-aviation revenues, thus providing their customers a unified and seamless online and offline experience.

Heathrow will strengthen its digital services and infrastructure to create a simple process for the 300 brands to share their products with customers, leading to greater choice within the current Reserve and Collect service.

In addition to providing a sophisticated, convenient on-and offline shopping experience, the OM³ Suite will ultimately integrate with numerous additional features including loyalty programmes, lounge access, parking and VIP services.

And another feature of the platform is the capability to provide passengers with real-time information, helping make the most of their time in the terminals.

AOE CEO, Kian Gould, comments: “We are especially excited to be part of Heathrow Airport’s strategy to digitalise their entire business model to benefit both passengers and employees.

“As one of the world’s most important airports, Heathrow is at the forefront of the aviation industry, continuously innovating to improve its offering. Our goal is to be a long-term partner in this effort to enhance the passenger experience.”

The airport’s retail and service proposition director, Chris Annetts, says: “We have a long-term vision to deliver a seamless digital experience for all our passengers, both inside the airport and in the comfort of their homes.”

Melbourne Airports turns to TIBCO Solutions TIBCO Software Inc has announced that Melbourne Airport has deployed its integration, API management, and analytic solutions to ensure that it has real-time information in support of unprecedented visibility into airport operational systems.

Previously challenged with a silo-based heterogenic system landscape where each element of information had resided in a different silo, the gateway set out to combine events and information held in different systems into an intuitive and user friendly interface to enhance operational awareness.

Melbourne Airport’s new Situation Awareness Platform ties together distributed systems and provides operators, planners, managers, and external providers with real-time information to support collaborative decision-making, resource-planning, and

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identification of incidents which affect the customer journey and overall quality of airport service.

In addition to deploying TIBCO’s API-based architecture and enterprise-ready ESB platform, Melbourne Airport has deployed a number of other TIBCO solutions.

“The systems have established a strong foundation for the continuing integration of information and operational technologies allowing proactive, and in the future, predictive operations, in line with our vision of being a ‘smart’ airport,” says Vic Raymond, Melbourne Airport’s ICT strategy, planning and architecture manager.

“We now have the technology to have a visual overview of real-time operational activities which are occurring at the airport.”

RUNNING WBP NEWS HEAD

The latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners

Colourful new look for Cancun stores

The Design Solution has created a bespoke design for the 2,450sqm of retail outlets operated by Dufry in Cancún International Airport’s newly opened Terminal 4.

The facilities include approximately 1,900sqm of space dedicated to Dufry’s innovative ‘New Generation’ store, which it says features “extensive and innovative use of digital applications in order to increase passenger communication and drive sales”.

“The Cancun store designs are strongly focused on a mixture of key elements of local culture, particularly on the heritage and craftsmanship of the Mayans, the vibrant local markets, pulsating nightlife and the natural beauty of the coastline,” says The Design Solution’s director, Nick Taylor.

“These local themes are blended with a strong focus on leading-edge digital technology, including large-scale digital screens that not only enhance customisation but can also be used to consolidate the local spirit of the spaces.

“It’s crucial that the design adopts local themes with sincerity and respect. Modern travellers are not fools, they instinctively know when they’re encountering simplistic touristic clichés and they’re eager to discover an authentic local experience that resonates.

“By engaging them in authentic local storytelling we can use design to create great retail experiences that influence their shopping behaviour, drive revenue and enhance the whole airport experience.”

Future bright at Greece’s regional airports “Our partnership with ADB SAFEGATE ADB SAFEGATE has been selected as the long-term was focused on a win-win partnership,” airfield ground lighting (AGL) service partner for says, Alexandros Alivizatos, general manager Fraport Greece’s 14 regional Greek airports. at Redex.

It has signed a 2+1 year Service Level “With ADB SAFEGATE providing the AGL Agreement (SLA) for AGL maintenance supervision expertise it allowed us to deploy resources in that started with an audit to register all assets the most efficient way. The AGL maintenance at all airports. team and general maintenance teams can The audit was GPS enabled including video work in a concerted manner leading to better and image capturing of each asset, electronic resource planning and cost reduction for the measurement of the performance of the asset and functional evaluation of the control system. end customer.”

ADB SAFEGATE CEO, Christian Onselaere, This, says Fraport Greece’s general says: “Our global service experience and maintenance contractor, Redex, has led to the local knowledge have allowed us to set creation of an asset database for the airports up a model together with our partner Redex with a detailed measurement of the quality of that makes best use of our competences.” each gateway’s AGL.

ALPHA-AIRPORT Location: Le Bretonneux, France Contact: Lyes Soua, operations director E: Lyes.soua@alpha-airport.com W: www.alpha-airport.com Alpha-Airport is renowned as a leading system integrator in terminal design and equipment, as well as full lighting system installation. Our range of services encompasses all necessary steps throughout the project management process from design to implementation, including technical studies, supplies, logistics, installation and supervision, set-up, training and after-sale support.

Alpha-Airport was awarded ISO9001 certification in 2000, followed by ISO14001 certification in 2012. Moreover, both certifications have been renewed every year since. Numerous airports and airport authorities have granted us their trust, both in France and around the world.

ISS FACILITY SERVICES Location: Murarrie, QLD, Australia Contacts: Sarah Renner, executive general manager for aviation and transport; Gray Manson, business risk and innovations manager; E: sarah.renner@au.issworld.com W: www.au.issworld.com As a worldwide provider of support services to aviation customers, including security, screening and cleaning, at ISS we recognise the importance of creating the best passenger experience. With a team of almost 15,000 people operating throughout Australia, ISS is one of the country’s largest facility service providers with annual revenue approaching A$1 billion.

THE MARSHALL RETAIL GROUP Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA Contact: Roderick McOwan E: rmcowan@marchallretailgroup.com W: www.marshallretailgroup.com Marshall Retail Group (MRG) is America’s largest, independent specialty retailer in the airport and casino-resort marketplace.

For 60 years, MRG has provided clients with a portfolio of attractive, successful brands that turn pedestrians into window shoppers, window shoppers into buyers and buyers into loyal, repeat customers.

The premiere retail development company currently operates more than 160 stores across the United States and Canada.

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HUMAN RESOURCES

PEOPLE

matters Control or be controlled?

Dr Richard Plenty and Terri Morrissey reflect on the importance of taking control of technology.

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riting this article together, in both London and Dublin, separated by 300 miles and the Irish Sea, we noted that technology allows us to collaborate in a way that would have been next to impossible a few years ago.

And we found ourselves wondering that if the pace of change were to continue, could this column be written eventually by robots!

There could be advantages. We are both busy and are looking forward to a break at the end of the year. It would be nice to have the option of escaping from the dark autumn days of Northern Europe a little earlier rather than having to worry about meeting tight deadlines.

We remember reading twenty years ago about a world of unlimited leisure time promised by automation. That promise has not yet been kept. Most of us feel we are busier than ever.

That may change with the latest wave of technology. The recent opening of Singapore Changi’s Terminal 4 provides one glimpse of the future.

Highly automated check-in, security, immigration and boarding aim to provide a seamless service – without any people.

Technology is increasingly able to perform what were previously seen as skilled and expert activities.

Should we embrace this level of technological change or be anxious and fearful? On the one hand, there will be painful disruption as traditional roles disappear; on the other hand, we know

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from previous experience that ultimately new jobs will be created and exciting new opportunities will emerge.

We see the key to successful change as ensuring people feel as much as possible in control: • Involve people and listen to them.

The Insurance group AVIVA has asked its UK staff whether a robot could do their jobs better. Those who answer ‘yes’ are retrained for new roles. Engaging people in the selection, design and implementation of new systems develops ownership and understanding and a sense of being in control.

• Encourage people to take personal responsibility for learning.

Acknowledge working lives are bound to change: flexibility, adaptability and new skills will be needed. Ensure teams keep up to date with developments and support them in making time for learning and relearning.

• Prioritise technology, which empowers people. We should design systems that facilitate people to do what people do best: meaningful work, which requires judgment, co-operation, creativity and the ‘human touch’. We need to say ‘no’ to automation, which creates a form of indentured slavery, with excessively tightly controlled duties and unrealistic deadlines.

A balance of automation and autonomy should allow us to have more time in the sun.

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Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has named Mike Stewart as vice president and airport manager for Washington Dulles International Airport.

He will transition into his new role following the December 8 retirement of Brian Leuck, who has served as vice president and airport manager since January 2017. Carl Schultz succeeds Stewart as MWAA’s interim vice president for airline business development.

Geoff Culbert is to succeed Kerrie Mather as CEO of Sydney Airport in January 2018. He has served as president and chief executive of GE Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea since 2014.

Sydney Airport chairman, Trevor Gerber, said: “Aviation is one of the most dynamic and fast changing industries in the world. Geoff embraces innovation and technology and this ongoing focus will position Sydney Airport for future success.”

Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) has a new chief financial officer after interim CFO, Ian Clarke, took up the position on a permanent basis in mid-November.

Former Heathrow CEO, Tony Douglas, is the new CEO of the Etihad Aviation Group. Douglas joins Etihad from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, where he has served as CEO of the Defence Equipment and Support department, responsible for procuring and supporting all the equipment and services for the British Armed Forces.

About the authors Dr Richard Plenty is managing director of This Is… and runs the ACI World Airport Human Resources programme. The next one is in Istanbul Feb 5-9, 2018. Terri Morrissey is chairperson of This Is… and CEO of the Psychological Society of Ireland.

Contact them through info@thisis.eu

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